Six Weeks
by Xerox
Summary: The truth about Charlie's pregnancy comes out during a visit to the obstetrician. Characters: Henry, Charlie. Pairings: mentions of Betty&Henry, Charlie&Dr. Farkas. Spoilers: Season 1. Now AU - written between Seasons 1 and 2.


Author's notes and disclaimers: I don't own the show _Ugly Betty_ or any of its characters. I only own the doctor and the nurse. This fic was published between the first and second seasons of UB. Thanks to the chat crew for helping me with all the questions I had about the obstetrics and ultrasound stuff. Special thanks to Ginger/spiceandnice for the beta job.

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"Dr. Crown will be right in with you," the nurse told Henry and Charlie as she led them into an examining room. She handed Charlie an examination gown to change into and left, closing the door behind her.

As Charlie changed Henry stared at a poster on the wall diagramming the stages of pregnancy. His life had seemed so perfect a week earlier. He'd broken up with Charlie and he and Betty had declared their feelings for one another. But then Charlie showed up at Betty's home...and here he and Charlie were, almost 3000 miles away from Betty.

Henry still had the last voice mail from Betty, asking him to call her. He had picked up the phone and almost dialed her number too many times to count. He smiled to himself. "Ringle" was still his new favorite word. He shook his head. The sooner he accepted that Betty was a part of the past, the sooner he could move on and the better a father he would be to the baby he had created...with Charlie. It would be just a little over six months before the baby arrived. Charlie had already shown him the positive home pregnancy test and now they were at Dr. Crown's office for official confirmation. Afterward, the two of them would tell Henry's mother and Charlie's parents that they would be grandparents.

Henry's thoughts were interrupted when Dr. Crown entered the room carrying a chart with a questionnaire Charlie had filled out.

"Good afternoon, Charlotte, Henry," the middle-aged woman said, shaking their hands.

"Let's hop up on the table, shall we?" Dr. Crown suggested, patting it gently. Charlie sat on the examination table. Dr. Crown smiled at the two of them.

"Well, you two are definitely going to be parents," she informed them. "Now we'll see how far along you are so I can give you a due date." She began to rub a clear gel onto Charlie's abdomen. Charlie suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"Um, Henry?" she said nervously, "you don't have to stick around if you don't want to. I know this might be kind of gross."

"Of course I want to stick around!" Henry exclaimed. "I want to see our baby." Henry smiled although he himself felt nervous. Their impending parenthood was real.

Dr. Crown turned on the ultrasound machine and began to move the transducer probe over the gel. "Okay...there's your baby," she instructed, pointing at something the size of a small lemon on the monitor.

Despite his feelings about the entire situation, Henry's heart jumped when he saw the tiny fetus on the screen. That was _his baby_. He couldn't believe it was so tiny, despite Charlie telling him she was nearly three months along. Unbeknownst to both Henry and Dr. Crown, the doctor was about to drop a bomb.

"Six weeks, right on schedule."

"Six weeks?" Henry repeated. "No, no, it's been much longer than six weeks since we last--She's almost three months along, right Charlie?" He looked at Charlie for agreement. Charlie was staring straight ahead and looked at though she had just been caught robbing a bank.

Henry stared at her. "Right, Charlie?"

A picture suddenly flashed across Henry's memory. Charlie, curled up on that ridiculous purple couch, armed with a hot water bottle and a large bag of Hershey's Kisses. That had been barely two months earlier...and _after_ the last time the two of them had been intimate.

"Oh, no," the oblivious Dr. Crown disputed, "Charlotte, you aren't even two months along! You see, when--Oh!" She suddenly got the gist of the conversation. "I...I have an important phone call to make, so why don't I let you two discuss things amongst yourselves?" She hurried out the door, shutting it firmly behind her.

Henry turned his back to Charlie and closed his eyes. He felt as if a large knife had been plunged into his chest. He struggled to breathe. He didn't know whether to cry, scream, or trash the room. He settled for taking several deep breaths before turning back around to face Charlie. Charlie was avoiding Henry's gaze.

In the most controlled voice he could muster, Henry quietly asked, "The baby isn't mine, is it?" Charlie shook her head miserably.

Now the knife in Henry's chest twisted. "Who is he? Do I know him?"

"Kind of," Charlie murmured softly, her eyes filling with tears. "It's Gabe."

"Gabe?" Henry repeated, incredulous. Did he know a "Gabe"? "Do I know a Ga--_Farkas?_ Dr. Farkas? Betty's orthodontist?"

Charlie flinched at hearing the name "Betty" from Henry's mouth but whispered, "Yes."

Henry was stunned. "What...how...when did this happen?"

"Gabe's office isn't far from where I sold my jewelry. In fact, my stand was right next to the place he went for lunch." Charlie glanced at Henry out the corner of her eye.

"Go on."

She continued in a rush, "We ran into each other a couple of days after my birthday party and he invited me to have lunch with him. I asked if he had noticed something between you and Betty the night of my party. He said he had. I couldn't help what happened next--I told him about the way the two of you looked at each other, about how you would come home late all the time and tell me you were working, and about how you never touched me anymore. Pretty soon, we became friends and started having lunch together every day. I'd vent to him whenever I was having problems with you and he always listened. One evening Gabe was leaving his office just as I was shutting down my stand, and he invited me to dinner. We ended up at his place."

Henry squeezed his eyes shut, but said nothing. "After that, it was like we were a couple. He took me to his office to meet the hygienists. I even made them all bracelets. One night, about a month and a half ago, we were at his place and...the...the condom broke," Charlie finished.

Henry shook his head in confusion. "If Farkas is the father of your baby, why did you tell me it was mine? And why did you stay with me if you were involved with him?"

"I was jealous of Betty. I knew how you felt about each other. I would see you look at her in the same way you used to look at me. You hadn't looked at me that way since we'd gotten back together. That night I got lost on the subway, I saw you two together. I know you would have kissed her if I hadn't called out to you. I knew then that I'd made a mistake in coming to New York. But I didn't want to admit it, it, to myself or anyone else," she whispered miserably.

"Also, my pride wouldn't let me break up with you. I felt disrespected. That night at the Middle Ages restaurant was the last straw. I overheard you telling Betty you loved her. I know you had just been hit over the head and you weren't all there, but deep down, I knew you meant it. I told her to stay away from you because I thought it would make things better between us. But then you broke up with me, and I knew she had won. Even though I was seeing Gabe, I was angry. I wanted to hurt her the way I was hurt."

Henry was incredulous. "And that's why you told us that I was the father?"

Charlie shook her head. "Not exactly. You know how my parents are. They didn't want me going to New York in the first place. They would never forgive me for coming home pregnant by a guy I've only known for a few months and that they don't know at all." The tears in Charlie's eyes finally spilled over.

Despite his hurt and anger, Henry felt a pang of sympathy for her. He himself had always been uncomfortable around Charlie's parents. They were an extremely conservative couple who had never quite approved of their daughter's bohemian lifestyle or the fact that Henry was the product of a "broken home". They would not be happy to learn that they were going to be grandparents before they were parents-in-law. His reverie was interrupted by Charlie.

"Henry, my parents have always liked you. They would take the news of the baby so much better if they thought we were getting married," she said.

Henry sadly shook his head. "I can't marry you. Not just because the baby isn't mine, but because it wouldn't be fair to either of us. It's never going to be the way it was the first time we were together." He handed Charlie his handkerchief, then walked over to the door and opened it. "I'll wait for you in the lobby."

Henry closed the door behind him and walked down the hall to the lobby. He sat in a chair and put his head in his hands. He had no idea what to think. The baby Charlie was carrying wasn't his. He was just beginning to get excited about becoming a father. Yet, just like that, he wasn't going to be. How had things come to this? When he'd had the short fling with Charlie over the holidays, he never would have guessed it would lead to such a mess. He should have been more assertive with her when she'd arrived in New York. He was no longer in love with Charlie, he hadn't been for quite some time, but he'd tried to use her as a substitute when he thought that he and Betty would never be together. That had been a huge mistake. Even if Betty had remained with Walter, it had been unfair to both himself and Charlie to pretend that things could have been the way they once were.

Henry remembered the night Betty had purposely lost Charlie on the subway. The one when she had told him that he was the reason she had broken up with Walter, then took it back. He remembered his own words to her, _"If you didn't love him then you did the right thing."_ Why had _he_ taken so long to do the right thing himself? Because he'd been too afraid to break up with Charlie, too afraid of hurting her. Instead he made an even bigger mess, and he ended up hurting Betty as well.

More pictures flashed across Henry's memory. Him nearly kissing Betty near the subway entrance. Him hugging Betty, twirling her around, and caressing her cheek. Him lying on the mat at the Middle Ages, his head pounding, but looking into Betty's eyes and being unable to keep the words "I love you" to himself. Charlie had seen it all...and now she was walking into the lobby.

Charlie looked slightly surprised to see Henry still waiting for her. He stood up as she made her next appointment with the receptionist. Afterwards, they silently walked to his car. They got in, but Henry didn't start the ignition.

"Does Far--Gabe know about the baby?" he asked.

Charlie shook her head. "No, I didn't tell him. He doesn't even know I left New York."

Henry said, "I think you need to tell him. It's only fair. You know I didn't have a father growing up, that's why I came back to Tucson with you. Your baby deserves a father and Gabe deserves to know that he's going to be one."

"But I'm here now. It's too late to tell him." Charlie complained. "And it isn't the kind of thing I want to tell him over the phone."

"Well," Henry said slowly, "maybe you wont have to." Charlie looked at him in surprise. Henry continued, "If we went back to New York, you could tell him in person. I'll even buy your ticket back."

"You'd do that? Even after all this?"

"It's the least I could do. I know I haven't been perfect during this entire mess." As he started his car and pulled out of the parking lot, Henry had to admit that his gesture had a somewhat selfish aspect. There was someone else in New York whom he thought should hear the news that Dr. Gabe Farkas was going to be a father....

Henry dropped Charlie off at her parents' house. She planned to tell them of her condition before going back to New York. He arrived at his mother's house, where he was staying temporarily. He went inside, made a beeline for the phone, and dialed a number.

_"Tucson International Airport. How may I help you?"_

"Hello, I'd like to purchase two tickets for a flight to New York...."

The End


End file.
